Petroleum and petrochemical industries provide energy and required products for human beings, but they also cause environmental pollution.
For example, oil leakage by oceanic petroleum exploitation, oil spill from wrecked oil tankers, and malicious disposal of waste oil have seriously endangered environment and ecology. Normally, the abovementioned oil pollutions are removed with oil absorbents or oil scavengers. Then, the collected oil is treated with bioreagents. However, the abovementioned method is complicated and expensive. U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0031846 disclosed a method for collecting oil with modified clay, wherein oil is absorbed by modified clay, and wherein an oleophilic polymeric compound is intercalated into laminate structures of silicate clay, mica, or talc to expand the interlayer space for absorbing more oil.
However, the abovementioned modified clay is difficult to recycle. Besides, the weight ratio of the absorbed oil to the modified clay is only about 20 for the modified clay used in the first time. Therefore, there is still room to improve the oil absorbing capacity for achieving better treatment on oil pollution.